In commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 3,975,066 there has been disclosed a journal bearing of this type divided into two symmetrical halves, each half comprising a set of rotary bodies such as balls or rollers seated in an annular row between an inner ring hugging the shaft and an outer ring spacedly surrounding the inner ring. The seat axes of these bodies are oppositely inclined with reference to a radial plane of symmetry, converging either toward or away from the shaft axis in what may be described as an "X" mounting or an "O" mounting. The patent also shows the possibility of splitting either ring into two parts, one for each bearing half, while leaving the other ring undivided and common to both halves.
From U.S. Pat. No. 2,627,120 there is known a bearing structure of the same general type, with outwardly converging seat axes ("O" mounting), in which the inner and outer rings are both split into axially separated halves. The outer ring halves abut, from opposite sides, an annular flange or rib on an inner peripheral wall surface of a surrounding housing so as to be held against displacement in an axially inward direction, i.e. toward each other. The inner ring halves are kept apart by an annular spacer which is freely slidable on a shaft whose width, relative to that of the confronting rib, is chosen to sustain a desired degree of axial prestress.
The presence of such a fixedly positioned annular rib in a bearing of the type referred to, on the convergence side of the seat axes, has the advantage of requiring only one ring to be axially immobilized by external abutments as the rib absorbs axial stresses exerted upon either half of the other bearing ring through the rotary bodies. A drawback of the known arrangement, however, is the need for precisely correlating the axial width of the fixed rib on one peripheral surface, namely that of the housing, with that of the movable annular spacer on the opposite peripheral surface, i.e., that of the shaft. If the width of the spacer diminishes through wear or shrinkage, an axial pressure acting upon one ring half adjoining that spacer is no longer transmitted to the other ring half and must therefore be absorbed entirely by the rib which, accordingly, must be dimensioned to resist considerable loads if frequent replacements of the spacer or reshapings of the rib are to be avoided.